Gantto Takes On Microsoft Project With Web-Based Project Management Application
Leena Rao
Aug 13, 2010

Y Combinator-backed Gantto is launching its easy to use web-based project management application to the public today. Designed to take on Microsoft’s project management software, Gantto focuses on helping users visualize and present project schedules.

Gantto, a play on words of ‘gantt chart,’ not only allows you to create project schedules but also lets users turn schedules into presentations. In previous work at a medical robotics company, Gantto’s founders had to manually reproduce their Microsoft Project schedules and charts in PowerPoint presentations when showing their progress in meetings. With Gantto’s application, you can present directly from the application.

New users can actually import their projects and data from MS Project, or create their own from scratch. The task management application also features drag and drop functionality, sticky note reminders, and the ability to format presentations by color, font and more.

And you can make adjustments in schedules and data on the fly within Gantto during a meeting or discussion. Eventually Gantto will create a collaborative system that incorporates email as well as other communications.

MS Project currently has over 20 million users so the market has significant potential. And Gantto is a nice alternative for any bootstrapped business because it’s free, scalable and simple to use. Of course, Gantto faces competition from web-based project management applications such as Basecamp.

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  • raj

    holy cow! may the good lord forgive these useless project managers who still use gantt charts just to prove their importance in the skype / threaded email / visual studio 2010 / xp / agile development era!

  • http://www.glasnost21.com Antony Slumbers

    Tend to agree. If you really do need Gantt charts you probably do need MS Project. If not then something easier, more friendly and more collaborative is probably a better bet.

    Antony Slumbers
    http://www.glasnost21.com
    ‘The home of open and transparent collaboration’

  • Paul

    Holy-crap do they need to hire a web designer, pronto.

    Also, people still make Gantt charts?

  • http://www.michaelmertens.eu michael

    what is your way to present the project plan?

  • Chris

    We offer a few different features, zoom, best fit, etc. that allow you to manipulate the schedule in real time. It is up to the presenter to pick the right amount of information and font size that their audience can easily read.

  • Ed E.

    Gantt Charts? that’s for the square-type PM and so web 1.0 as well.

    Today is all about project collaboration + social

  • Ryan

    Meh, project collaboration and social are way too buzzy. They’re not the productivity panacea that everyone hypes.

    Most work still needs to be done on an individual basis, and it will always be this way. The need for good personal productivity tools will never go away.

  • James

    I’d like to see you manage a project with 160+ team members with Skype and threaded e-mail… Not everyone works on crappy little projects.

  • http://www.fellowstream.com Deborah Fike

    I agree with you, Ryan, and I’d take it a step further. You have different needs for different teams. Some might need Gantt charts, but the average employee on any size team needs a way to prioritize tasks. Those are two different objectives that may require different types of tools. I don’t there will ever be a one-size fits all solution…it would be too confusing!

  • http://jptechcruch.wordpress.com/ jptechcruch

    Stop auto-refreshing of the TC page, please. It just hinders reading.

  • http://www.rbkmoney.com Andrew

    We use LiquidPlanner.com which has it all: Gannt diagrams, social functions and chatter, and much more on the web interface

  • Travis R.

    Why hasn’t TechCrunch ever covered a PM tool called @task if they are going to cover this crappy tool called Gantto? Do you have to pay TechCrunch to get reviewed? Our company has used @task for several years and it’s a very powerful tool with all the same functionality of MS Project plus a lot more for what is called Portfolio Management. It’s all completely web based. Very awesome tool. From what I can see from the screenshots, @task absolutely kills Gantto. Take a look for yourself. http://www.attask.com

  • Sheesh

    Lol… Any project with more than 5 devs produces mostly crap, regardless of how many pretty charts you hang on the walls.

  • http://www.ganttic.com Indrek

    Looks good, but does not offer anything really new. I find my http://www.ganttic.com to be better in navaigation in calendars and offering more functionality

  • http://david.am David Symons

    I wish they would introduce some kind of ‘mind mapping’ into these project based services, as I find that one of the key parts of projecting any project – is the planning and brain storming.

  • http://blog.sagepointsoftware.com Richard Wilner

    Looks very nice, but most of the challenges I face are around staffing and evaluating candidates. In other words, our projects are resource limited and we have to staff up quickly.

    Does this tool offer any resource evaluation or matching capability?

    p.s. A web-based “ms project” clone would be great, and would avoid the emailing around of 90 revisions of .mpp files.

  • http://www.ganttic.com Indrek Kuldkepp

    For resource planning http://www.ganttic.com is just the right tool

  • http://blog.sagepointsoftware.com Richard Wilner

    Looks like a nice product, although not what i’m looking for. When I speak of resources what I mean is people — matching their skills to tasks.

  • Ashley Bell

    Jeez, the design is so 1990s. Apart from that, I don’t think Gantt chart only can save the day if you have several projects running. For instance, a PM tool can hardly be any good without handy email integration. To see my tasks on the chart I need to get them out of reply-on-reply-on-reply mess. Awesome email integration was one of the reasons why we picked Wrike (wrike.com) for our company.

    If Gantto guys integrate their app with email and come up with better design, then maybe I’ll check it out.

  • janice holt

    i might check it out later

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